I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with Brenda at the Newburyport Literary Festival. When we weren’t speaking on a panel or cavorting with other authors and editors, we spent the rest of the weekend dining and chatting about bookish things.

We even spent a couple hours in Starbucks working side by side.

In truth, I have been lucky enough to spend a great deal of time with Brenda over the past year in the run up to my next book, which is more than I can say for many authors and their editors.

Brenda is a fascinating blend of frivolity and stoicism. Invite her to a cocktail party and she will have introduced herself to every guest within the hour and charmed them all.

Yet she is also a woman who does not abide by grandstanding or unnecessary attention-seeking. She possesses a quiet dignity that I admire greatly. I imagine Brenda as the kind of woman who would have endured the London Blitz by reminding her friends and family that cities have been bombed before and will be bombed again, so Please go about your business with as little whining as possible, and for goodness sake, try not to get killed.

It’s a wonderful and unusual blend of personal characteristics that I think we rarely find in this world anymore.

Not to mention she’s also damn fine editor and smart as hell.

Tonight I find myself exceptionally grateful to have Brenda helping to guide my books and my career. Not everyone can say that they adore their editor, but I am one of the lucky authors that can.